


Score

by berlynn_wohl



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Anal Sex, Failboats In Love, First Time, Hand Jobs, Intimacy, M/M, Misunderstandings, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 19:08:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berlynn_wohl/pseuds/berlynn_wohl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dude. You know people make fun of us already, right? I mean like, all they do is make fun of us. That’s all people have ever done.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Score

Hermann considered it a waste of time to spend more than five minutes preparing a meal, or more than ten minutes consuming one. When the mess hall was closed, he subsisted on anything that could reasonably go from a plastic container in the kitchen directly into his mouth, and gobbled vitamins to make up for any deficiencies inherent in this method.

But despite his aversion to inefficiency, Hermann refused to economize on time by snacking in the lab while he worked. Newt knew this was not just out of fear of potential contaminants in the lab, because he noticed also that Hermann always took the extra few minutes required to carry his food from the mess hall or kitchen to his quarters, just off the lab, and then shut the door behind him.

For a long time, Newt harbored some hope that Hermann’s reason for insisting on eating in private was super interesting. For example, that he was an alien, and was unable to eat while wearing his human-suit. Or perhaps he didn’t eat at all, and procuring the food was a pretense, whilst he utilized a soaking-tank for his lunch-broth, or wore nutrient patches. Maybe he subsisted on draining all the fun out of the room like a kind of fun-vampire.

But the actual reason was simply that Hermann believed that eating was an embarrassing, intimate act, and for maximum retention of dignity should be performed where no one else could see him do it.

Newt was not the only K-science team member who scoffed at Hermann’s habits; but he was the only one who stuck around long enough to witness Hermann actually putting food in his mouth. One day, in 2022, after the other Hong Kong K-scientists had moved on to occupations more worthy of their time (or simply more lucrative), Tentalus’ attack on Shanghai sent the Shatterdome into a eighteen-hour frenzy. Afterward, as Newt and Hermann sat slumped and bleary-eyed in the lab, Newt unthinkingly handed Hermann an energy bar and a bottle of water, and then stared in surprise as Hermann, having gone without food and sleep for a full day, unceremoniously opened both items and consumed them, right then and there.

 _Holy crap, I am seeing Hermann eat,_ was Newt’s first thought. _That’s the dumbest thing to be excited about, but I’ll bet I’m the first person to witness that in like, eight years. Score one for Newt!_

He watched as Hermann broke off piece after piece of the energy bar, and put them in his mouth. He watched Hermann’s jaw and throat working as he chewed and swallowed. He watched Hermann put the bottle to his lips, sucking the liquid out, so great was his thirst. And to top it all off, having filled his achingly empty belly, Hermann gave a little satisfied sigh.

It occurred to Newt that, if Hermann was suddenly willing to indulge in this apparently intimate act, why, there was no limit to what Newt might wrest from him! Perhaps one day he would remove his jacket, or use some vulgar language!

The idea spurred Newt to action, and emboldened him. So much so that, four months later, he (finally, finally) found himself on the sofa at the edge of the lab, just outside his room, seated next to Hermann with one hand on Hermann’s thigh. Hermann was looking at the floor like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen, and his face was flushed – so far, only with embarrassment.

“I haven’t really done it before.” Hermann’s admission was a barely audible whisper.

“You’ve never _kissed_ before? Wow!” As soon as it was out of his mouth, Newt realized that was not only the wrong thing to say, but the worst way to say it. “I mean, that’s cool, that’s totally fine. ‘Cause I can show you how.” And with that, he climbed onto Hermann’s lap, careful of his leg but eliciting an irritated squawk nonetheless. In this position, he could feel Hermann’s body heat, something he’d never been close enough to feel before. It gave him a pleasant shiver. “So, here. Just tilt your head up towards me. Now open your mouth, just slightly.”

Hermann obeyed, letting his lips part, almost imperceptibly at first, but wider when he gasped as Newt swooped in. The way Newt angled himself, their mouths met in such a way that Hermann could feel a sliver of the moist inner part of Newt’s lips slide against the moist inner part of his own. He made a little noise into Newt’s mouth.

Newt went on to give Hermann a practical demonstration of all sorts of ways that two mouths could interlock. It was so soft, and wet, and nice, and then Hermann felt hands on him, under his jacket, exploring.

When Newt noticed that Hermann seemed to be frozen still, he retreated for a moment, and found Hermann looking…distraught, maybe? Newt wasn’t good with reading faces sometimes. He asked, “Is everything cool?”

“I think so?” Hermann replied. He looked down. “I, ah, I have an erection.”

“That’s supposed to happen.”

“I know that!”

“So can I see it? I’ll take mine out too.”

This was one of those situations where Hermann did not know whether he should trust Newton, because Newton had more experience, or whether he should be wary of Newton, because Newton was completely crazy. But it did seem to Hermann at that moment that if he took his penis out, he would feel a lot better, so he reached down and fumbled with the button and zip, tugging fabric aside until his erection tumbled out. Newt’s eyes were fixed on it, even as he was getting his own out.

“Yours looks really nice,” Newt said.

“Thank you…? Yours is, ah, lovely as well.”

Newt grasped Hermann’s cock without hesitation and gave it quick little strokes, and then leaned in to kiss him some more. Hermann’s eyes were closed; he rooted around blindly until he managed to take hold of Newt’s erection, and tried to imitate Newt, to match his rhythm. Having his cock stroked made the kissing feel better, or perhaps it was the kissing that made the stroking feel better. Both things produced little wet sounds, as Newt used his foreskin to rub his pre-come all around, while their lips smacked together. It made Hermann feel strange and squirmy, and soon there was an intense coiling in his belly, and as the feeling shot down to his balls, he whispered “ _Oh, no_ ,” and came.

Newt watched Hermann ejaculate, and the sight prompted him to follow suit, crying out as he rocked into Hermann’s fist. When he was done, the first thing he did was giggle, “Oh, no?’ Who says ‘oh, no’ when they come?”

Hermann looked down at the ropes of ejaculate on his sweater vest. A thick rivulet dripped down the lens of his glasses, which hung on a chain around his neck. The glasses lifted and fell, and the chain clinked gently against them, as he panted with the exertion. “The mess,” he said, his voice cracking. “I realized too late, the mess…”

“Oh man, you’re not gonna barf, are you?”

“What?”

“It’s just sometimes when you get freaked out, you barf.”

“I’m not—no, this is not one of those situations.”

“Okay, good. We can just clean this stuff, you know. It’s okay.”

Inside, Newt was thinking, _Dude, he hates messes, but I just got him so hot, he let us both make a huge mess of him. Score another point for Newt, am I right?_

And then he had an idea. Accumulating these “points” was fun. He wondered how many points he could rack up, and how.

They put themselves away in haste, and then Newt gently took the glasses from around Hermann’s neck, promising to take them to the bathroom to clean them thoroughly. He stood there for several more seconds, however, to laugh at Hermann trying to remove his sweater-vest without touching any of the spunk on it.

 

*****

That was the last time Newt ever got Hermann to sit on the sofa with him. He’d caught Hermann off his guard, then; now, Hermann refused all Newt’s advances in any area of the lab, muttering, “We might be seen.” As if that wasn’t what made it so exciting?

However, if he was successful in judging Hermann’s mood at the end of the day, Newt could occasionally get Hermann to invite him into his quarters. Hermann had to either be feeling accomplished and somewhat content after a day’s work uninterrupted by Newt, or else completely enraged by Newt’s blithering ignorance and ridiculous behavior. Either situation put him in the mood – though the subsequent shenanigans were very different, either sweet and playful or ferocious and shouty. Nothing in between.

Sometimes they just got naked under the covers together and rubbed against each other. Sometimes they took turns sucking each other off. What never changed, though, was Hermann’s insistence on pausing early in the proceedings to fold his clothes as he removed them. If Newt removed an article of Hermann’s clothing and allowed it to fall crumpled to the floor, Hermann would stop, snatch it up, and scold Newt as he hung it neatly over the back of the chair, at the very least.

It wasn’t that Newt had a problem with folded clothes. But he was a little insulted that Hermann could remain obsessed with tidiness even when they were fooling around. Thinking on it further, though, Newt determined that he had no one to blame but himself: if he did a better job of getting Hermann warmed up, Hermann would doubtless lose his preoccupation with tidiness before the clothes came off. This became his next goal.

The very next time that Newt sensed that Hermann was the least bit sexually inclined, he seized the opportunity, following Hermann into his quarters and, the moment the door was shut and securely locked, went to work on thoroughly and mercilessly seducing him. He pulled Hermann close, pressed against him. Hermann didn’t have an erection, yet, but Newt did, and he let Hermann feel it. With both hands at the small of Hermann’s back, he kissed him slowly. It was just like that first time they were together, on the sofa, or the first time they’d ended up properly in bed, treating Hermann like one false move would send him running. Hermann began to tremble, and wobble; he had discarded his cane, assuming things would proceed with their usual speed. He reached up and wrapped his arms around Newt’s neck for support. Ah, there it was; Newt could feel Hermann’s erection now. He kissed his way down Hermann’s jaw and neck, and as he pressed his lips against that sensitive flesh, he could feel Hermann’s pulse; it was racing. _I can do this_ , Newt thought. _I can be patient. I can take my time. I can, like, linger._

He pressed his palm to the front of Hermann’s trousers, sliding it up and down against the hardness there. Hermann was panting in his ear, now, with a slight edge of panic. He was not accustomed to being teased this much. Newt grinned slyly, because he knew Hermann couldn’t see it, and then slowly moved to unbuckle Hermann’s belt and unzip his trousers, Hermann sighed, “Yes…” But then, instead, Newt yanked Hermann’s shirttails free and put his hands up Hermann’s shirt, feeling the warm smooth skin over his ribs, slightly damp with perspiration. It still gave him a little surprise, touching Hermann and finding his skin so warm. This was likely because, for so many years prior, whenever he’d looked at Hermann he felt like he was observing some sort of cranky amphibian.

“Touch me,” Hermann pleaded.  
  
“I am touching you.”

“No, I mean touch my…touch my prick.” The last word was barely a whisper. He was practically vibrating, he was so worked up. This was the perfect moment. It had to be. Newt said, “Lift your arms.” He grabbed the hem of Hermann’s sweater-vest and lifted it up and off. When he dropped it on the floor, Hermann said nothing about it. He flicked the buttons of Hermann’s shirt open, tore it off, and let it fall to the ground. Hermann did not protest, only emitted little breathy groans. As Newt slipped his hand inside Hermann’s trousers, he looked at the discarded clothes on the floor, and thought, _I definitely just scored a point._

 

*****

 

Newt didn’t actually keep track of the points anywhere. He didn’t log them in a spreadsheet. Whenever he felt he’d done particularly well at a task relevant to driving Hermann into an erotic frenzy, he would just give himself a point and feel triumphant. Keeping careful track of the points seemed like something Hermann would do. In fact, he wondered if Hermann was keeping a score of his own. He could slip it in amongst the equations on his chalkboard somewhere, and Newt would never realize.

But then again, Hermann would probably never do that, in case anyone ever noticed and deciphered it. Despite all the points that Newt had accumulated, two years of attempts to win one for getting Hermann to acknowledge their relationship publicly had been entirely in vain. Last month, when everyone in the Shatterdome had gathered for the annual all-staff meeting, Newt had let his hand creep slowly over to Hermann’s knee, only to have it swatted away with a cluck of Hermann’s tongue. Several days later, the two of them were alone in the lab, standing quite close together, as they went over some figures. Newt found his hand rather close to Hermann’s, so he moved his little finger half an inch, brushing it against Hermann’s little finger. Hermann hissed, “Not here. Someone might see.”

 _Really?_ Newt had thought. _Someone might walk in and see our pinkies touching? You’re right, that would be a fucking disaster, wouldn’t it._

It was then that Newt decided, if he could convince Hermann to let it be known that they were together — basically married, really, when you got down to it, I mean, neither of them had used the M word, or even the L word, for that matter, but that was totally what their situation was, anyway who needed those words when it was so obvious, right? — that would be worth _ten_ points.

It was worth ten points because it was _important_ , not because of point inflation. That’s what Newt told himself. Point inflation had become a bit of a problem, ever since that one night…

They’d folded Hermann’s body pillow in half and now Hermann was draped over it, while Newt was giving it to him pretty hard from behind. They’d only done this a few times. Newt hadn’t refined his technique yet; he was still learning Hermann’s body. By this point he could tell when he was showing Hermann a good time by the three distinct noises of pleasure he made: whimpers and yelps, both quite undignified, and also deep grunts. Any other noise meant distress or annoyance. But it was only just then that Newt realized that the grunt meant something more specific: that he’d managed to strike Hermann’s prostate. Suddenly Newt had a new goal: provoke as many grunts as possible. He adjusted his angle based on this revelation, thinking, _Let’s see how many grunts I can get in a row. I’m gonna give myself points for the largest number of consecutive grunts._ A few minutes later, he was gleefully racking them up like a pinball machine, _ungh-ungh-ungh-four-five-six-seven_ , his longest streak finally concluding with Hermann’s orgasm.

After that, Newt was no longer satisfied with one point or so a week. Whenever he and Hermann had alone-time, he awarded himself one point for (for example) each minute he could just grind while inside Hermann – not thrusting in and out, just grinding – before Hermann lost all control and _begged_ for it. That resulted in six points; that is, six minutes of Newt rotating his hips in slow circles before Hermann was driven to madness and cried out for the mercy of Newt’s energetic thrusts.

Thus, the problem of point inflation. It was Newt’s bad luck that he set himself his ten-point goal on the day before Otachi made landfall.

 

*****

 

After the breach was closed and the clock was stopped, everyone in the Shatterdome wanted to party. That is, everyone who had been in the Shatterdome during the triple event wanted to party. Everyone who had been knocked around (or at the very least slobbered on) by a kaiju just wanted to sleep for a week.

So when Newt saw Hermann quietly making his way through the ecstatic crowd and out of LOCCENT, he followed him. Sure enough, Hermann was headed for his quarters. But for some reason, the whole way there, he deliberately stayed a half-step ahead of Newt. And it was a struggle to do so; the past few hours had not been kind to his leg and hip.

Nevertheless, Newt babbled as he followed Hermann down the corridors and through the lab: “You’ve got the right idea, dude. Right now, a hot shower and a snuggle is all the reward I want for saving the world.”

He tried to follow Hermann into his room, but was prevented by Hermann’s outstretched, forbidding hand. “Oh, yes? And how many points is _that_ worth, hm?”

Newt’s mouth fell open in horror. “You saw that in the drift.” Hermann moved to shut the door, but Newt blocked it. “ _No no no no you don’t understand_ —”

“I understand perfectly well. There is not a method available by which I could have understood better, in fact.” Hermann was leaning heavily on his cane, obviously summoning his last reserve of energy to shout at Newt one final time before he collapsed. “What a fool I was. If I’d had any sense, never in a million years would I have been intimate with you. Why did I think that you would be any less thoughtless and self-obsessed in bed than you are out of it?”

“Self-obsessed?! All I thought about was your happiness! Everything I did was to make you feel amazing!”

“Oh yes, that’s a perfectly reasonable excuse for treating our relationship like a damned game of _Space Invaders_!” And with that, Hermann slammed the door in Newt’s face.

No way was the conversation ending there. “Oh no, you don’t!” Newt hollered. He went for the door handle; then he heard the deadbolt click. “Oh. Yes you do, apparently,” he sighed.

Newt stared at the door, attempting to come to terms with the fact that the coolest thing he’d ever accomplished had resulted in the demise of the second-coolest thing he’d ever accomplished. He’d always thought drifting was awesome, and up until a minute and a half ago he would have told anyone who would listen that it was the pinnacle of 1.8 million years of human ingenuity. Now he was pretty sure it was the worst fucking thing ever. How the hell did the Kaidanovskys do it, strutting around like being in your partner’s head was some idyllic _Stranger In A Strange Land_ shit? It was obviously a recipe for disaster. He had never even considered that having points might be wrong. He’d just been having fun. And now that he’d been found out the way he had, it’s not like he could claim “it only happened once,” or “it was before we were officially in a relationship.” … _Wait a minute_. _Relationship?!_

“Hey!” Newt pounded the door with both hands. “Hey, you stuck-up bastard! What the hell did you just say to me?! Did you just say I treated our _relationship_ like a video game?! Because I was not aware that we were _having_ a relationship, because you never acted like we were in one! And you know I’m such an idiot, there’s no way I could know that we _were_ in a relationship, I mean you would have had to do something really unmistakable and obvious, like, I don’t know, _let me touch your hand while we were in the lab!”_

Silence from the other side of the door. Not even shuffling, or an exasperated sigh. Newt continued to scream, and cry, so violently that his glasses fogged up.

“I know you can hear me! Listen to me! If I treated you like a game of _Space Invaders_ , you treated me like a stolen porno mag hidden under your mattress! How do you think that made me feel? Huh? Did it ever occur to you that it might not be the worst thing ever if people knew that—oh.” Hermann was opening the door. In a state of partial unbuttoning, he looked even more bedraggled than he had two minutes previously, and his eyes were red-rimmed. Newt felt bad for yelling.

“I’m sorry,” Hermann said softly. “I didn’t realize that it was hurting you. I never thought of you as a…as a stolen pornographic magazine. I just…well, you must have seen it in the drift, how I felt?”

“No,” Newt said. “I didn’t. You know you don’t see everything. But even if I had, I wouldn’t let you get away with not saying it out loud right now.”

Hermann was still tightly gripping the door handle with one hand, and his cane with the other. After several seconds of fidgeting, he looked at the floor and said, “I was afraid. Because you…” Now he was looking up at the ceiling, sighing. “You mean a lot to me, and I was afraid that if people knew we were together, they would make fun of us.”

Newt blinked. “Dude. You know people make fun of us already, right? I mean like, all they do is make fun of us. That’s all people have ever done.”

“Yes, but they’d be making fun of _us_. _Us_ , us. Do you understand?”

“I think so…? But why would you even care?”

Hermann let his hand fall from the door handle, and took a step closer to Newt, reaching for him but still too embarrassed to make eye contact. “Look, we both did things that were misguided—”

Newt put his hands up. “Um, I don’t feel like what I did was misguided.”

“ _We each did things that the other believes was misguided_ ,” Hermann corrected himself through gritted teeth. “But I think, and I hope you do as well, that we can move beyond this and…continue as we were before. And I promise that I will publicly acknowledge that we are together, if you promise to abandon your point system.” Hermann made a beckoning gesture and stood back from the door, inviting Newt in.

Newt said, “Well _I_ was thinking we could maybe get points together. Like, if we can both get our—”

“Please, I would really like to sleep now, can we argue about this later.” Hermann shut the door behind Newt, and resumed removing his clothes.

“Well, sure, I mean, I guess we have the rest of our lives together to argue now. Uh, don’t we?”

Leaning over to remove his socks, Hermann gave Newt a look, and Newt couldn’t figure out if the look meant _Oh, now you think we’re going to be together forever?_ or possibly _Yes, we do, don’t we?_ _How lovely_. Newt helped Hermann with the rest of his clothes, then peeled off his own. “Ugh, I’m filthy. Can we take a shower?”

Hermann nodded once, weakly, to indicate his approval, and shuffled towards the shower stall.

While Newt scrubbed Hermann’s back, he asked, “Since we’re getting everything out in the open tonight, is there anything else you want to tell me? Maybe that I didn’t see in the drift?”

Hermann’s words were slurred with fatigue. “Did you see how I felt about space?”

“No. What about space?”

“Sometimes I become sexually aroused when I think about space.”

“Okay, that’s cool. Uh, why?”

Hermann raised his head and stared into the middle distance. “…I don’t know.”

“Well, you know, pretty soon we’re both gonna be out of a job, right? So, seems to me to be a great time to apply for a research grant. Then we can find out together.”

Hermann hung his head again, as Newt massaged his neck. “Mmm. Marvelous.”

**Author's Note:**

> And big-ups to my beta, Skylanth. :)


End file.
